Recreational kayakers’ discovered human remains in an area of Jake’s hometown authorities said they had searched more than a dozen times. Those remains were found Tuesday in and around Wolf Creek.  Jake, an autistic teenager, told his family he was going for a walk near the creek before he vanished April 7.  Authorities declined to say Thursday exactly where the remains were found. Investigators with the FBI and the state medical examiner’s office were assisting local authorities in forensically processing the area that search crews had combed up to 30 times previously.  “If this is Jake, it’s not enough to (just) recover him for this family,” Black Hawk County Sheriff Tony Thompson said during a news conference in the city’s fire station. “We want to know how” he died.

La Porte City Police Chief Chris Brecher said it could take a couple of weeks to get DNA testing results from the remains. When asked if the remains could be those of Jake, Brecher said told reporters: “With what we have found, it’s consistent (with) what we’re looking for.”  The remains were found downstream from where Jake was expected to have gone that evening, officials said.   Since the remains were found, authorities have been working to clear the area to locate, hopefully, more definitive evidence.   Brecher said the creek’s water level has lowered substantially since Wilson, 16, disappeared, and authorities believe that is what allowed the kayakers to make their discovery. Later in the news conference, the sheriff also mentioned the changes in the creek’s conditions, adding: “Why we didn’t find it very early on, I don’t know.”